FCD Notebook: first week of preseason wrapping up

FRISCO -- For FC Dallas, there’s no one that can truly replace David Ferreira, but that doesn’t mean they’re not searching for a backup. On Wednesday, FC Dallas announced that his former backup, Brazilian Ricardo Villar, has been waived and either a new player - or a formation switch - will become plan B should their talisman go down.

“Right now I think we’re not done yet in finding players and it may be another striker or an attacking midfielder,” Schellas Hyndman told reporters when asked about a backup for Ferreira. “I think our defense is solid, but it may be that No. 10 that can be a second striker or fill in for David. I think we’re still trying to find that player that we want, but potentially a 4-4-2 is always there.”

Along with Villar, Dallas waived defensive midfielder James Marcelin as they look to balance out the squad with fewer central midfielders and more options in attack.

Favorable Schedule

While the six-week abbreviated pre-season isn’t ideal for any team, something Schellas Hyndman loves is the new MLS schedule with significantly fewer midweek games. One of Hyndman’s main points of ire last season was the five times in which FC Dallas was forced to play a scenario of three games in a week. In 2013, that number has been reduced to two and just once if you take out the traditional July 4th midweek games.

“There were a lot of issues there,” Hyndman said about the old schedule. “But we feel really good that we’ve been able to present it in a logical way to the league and then to have the league say that this is valid and there’s concerns here.”

“To protect the players, to put a better product on the field and to make our league even better, we needed to make sure our players are best when they perform and I think they were able to make some adjustments.”